iGame Radio

Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas of MacGasm talk about the turnabout regarding Rage on the Mac and Gabe Newell’s comments about an Apple console. Plus, much more!
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Voting on the uDevGames contest has begun! Starting October 2nd and ending on October 13th, everyone may vote for their favorite Mac game in the contest.

For those of you unfamiliar with the uDevGames contest, in a nutshell developers create a game from scratch to complete in three months. Then games submitted to the contest are voted on by peers and the public at large, and prizes are awarded in multiple categories. It’s not uncommon for a uDevGames contest winner to go on to become a commercial success.

The official start of the contest was July 2, but voting began last week so you’ve got three more days left to cast your vote. There are sixteen games to look over, from RTS to sim to arcade shooters to RPG. Winners will be announced October 14.

This is a damn fine contest that really helps out the community. Not only does it allow both newbie and veteran coders and artists to stretch their potential, but all source code (that isn’t commercial, say, from a commercially used game engine) is then published to the community. So check out the games, have some fun, and vote!

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg and co-host Corey Tamas talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Omaha and Corey talk about the recent purchase of PopCap by EA. Omaha has a great wedding gift for PopCap…listen to find out what.
• The freemium freakout of traditional games continues. What games are next, and why are games traditionally sold at retail or with monthly subscriptions suddenly going freemium?
• Mac OSX Lion will break compatibility with older games that haven’t been upgraded to Universal status. Why, and what can you do about it?
• If you are in your 40′s and play games, do you think you’re weird? NBC’s Today Show thinks so. Find out what Corey and Omaha think.
• Whoa! What happened over at EVE Online?? We tease through the debacle to get to the meat of the issue.
• The uDevGames contest is live! Omaha gives a quick update about the contest.
• Omaha and Corey talk about games that they’ve played in the past week, and Omaha reveals the poll results from last week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Michael Hu-wong featured music from Fizzball.
• Tom McLeod featured music from Cooties, available from the iTunes App Store.

 

What’s inside this episode:

• Host Omaha Sternberg goes it alone to talk about the week’s news in Mac and iOS gaming. First up, Omaha talks about the rumored PopCap Games purchase, and whether it makes sense for EA Games to be the buyer.
• Paragon Studios announced that City of Heroes is going to a hybrid payment model called City of Heroes Freedom that includes a free to play membership. She’ll talk about the different memberships and what this means for City of Heroes.
• Tim Langdell, the trademark troll, got soundly sued in the UK court. Omaha talks about the depth of his fraud and why corporations have a responsibility to not enable this behavior.
• LEGO Universe also announced a hybrid membership model with a F2P membership, but this one’s a bit different from CoH. Omaha talks about what this means for LEBO Universe.
• Omaha briefly details EVE Online’s Incarna release.
• Phil Harrison thinks Apple will BE the game industry in the future. Omaha gives a brief view of what that might look like.
• Omaha mentions her sponsorship of this year’s uDevGames Contest and reveals the poll results from last week.

Music Notes:

• Digital Droo produced our theme music here at iGame Radio.
• Matt Jarvis for featuring music from Osmos.
• Bobby “Glorian” Slavov and Victor Stoyanov for featuring music from Eschalon: Book 1.

 

Episode 74 is posted. Cory Tamas and I chat about the state of Mac gaming. Plus, a review of Justin Ficarrotta’s award winning game Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious, and Transgaming’s PuzzleQuest: Challenge of the Warlords for the iPhone.

Laserface Jones vs. Doomsday Odious by Justin Ficarrotta


PuzzleQuest: Challenge of the Warlords for the iPhone by Transgaming

 

I talk with Justin Ficarrotta about Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious, his winning entry in the uDevGames 2008 contest, as well as his successes within the commercial game industry. Also, a chat with Matthew Woods, who developed Constellation for the uDevGames contest, his first contest entry, winning second place in the Best Overall category. We talk about what inspired him to found Paper Dragon Games and what he intends to do from here.

The Logo Contest is heating up! Our newest sponsor is Howling Moon Software, developers of ScribBall 2 and ScribBall for the iPhone. You can check out my interview with Andy Korth of Howling Moon regarding his uDevGames entry, too. Check his games out. :D

 

I talk with Andy Korth of Howling Moon Software about Reclaimed, his entry into the uDevGames 2008 contest, as well as his commercial games. Also, a chat with Stephen Johnson, who developed gw0rp for the uDevGames contest, and won in two categories. We chat about his history in the iDevGames community, his previous commercial success, and what his future is likely to be.

The uDevGames Contest is a Mac indie game contest run off and on throughout the years by the folks at iDevGames. It is an excellent opportunity for Mac Indie game developers to put a game together in a short time, using their skills and trying out all kinds of interesting ideas that might not necessarily fly well in the commercial game industry, especially among the big giants who are quite content with sequelitis.

uDevGames 2008 kicked off last year in early December, and voting just finished a few days ago. iDevGames just announced the winners on Monday.

And now, iDevGames is proud to announce the winners of uDevGames 2008:

Best overall Game
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Constellation – Matthew Woods
uDeadGame – William Griffin

Gameplay
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Constellation – Matthew Woods
Maneuv’It – DGuy

Graphics
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Surrounded By Death – Matt Hergaarden
ChasmBowling – Ben Mildren

Audio
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Maneuv’It – DGuy
ChasmBowling – Ben Mildren & Simoebic Dysentery – Joe Flores

Story
Boston: Mouse in the Sewer – Lincoln Green
Gw0rp – Stephen Johnson
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta

Presentation
Laserface Jones vs Doomsday Odious – Justin Ficarrotta
Constellation – Matthew Woods
Maneuv’It – DGuy

Originality
Simoebic Dysentery – Joe Flores
ChasmBowling – Ben Mildren
Gw0rp – Stephen Johnson

Congratulations to everyone who worked hard on this. You can check out their games and indeed all 20 of the games that entered the contest here. Also, I’ll be posting an interview with two of the developers (one of them a winner) later today. Hopefully, I’ll have some more interviews a little later on.

I haven’t been keeping up with this as I should…naughty me! uDevGames contest, the wonderful Mac games contest put on irregularly by Carlos Camacho and the forum members at iDevGames.com, is nearing the end of its run, and voting has begun.

There are 19 game demos available to look at and vote on, from arcade to puzzle to rpg. So, check them out, vote, and I may be able to provide some voices from the contest in the next few days or weeks for you as well.